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Factor 5 Animator Claims Studio is Cutting Projects, Needs Funding

FrankT

Member
Developer Factor 5 is facing tough choices due to our bad economy, according to a blog post from Sam Baker, an animator for the company. Baker explains that after a two-week foray to work with California-based animation studio The Orphanage, he came back to Factor 5 and found that none of his fellow employees had been paid in the past month. His team continued on their current project, but then had their health care benefits taken as a cost-saving measure.

Next, the company told employees that they had to shutter the current project due to insufficient funds. "We figured it wasn't a problem, however, because there were still other projects that needed us," he said. But most recently, Baker claims that Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht told the employees that they need funding in a week, or employees may need to start looking for other jobs. This is all the word of one blogger, so without official comment from the company we'll file it as a rumor for now. We can hope that the situation isn't as dire as it sounds, but if it is Factor 5 may need to start letting go of employees within the next week.

Baker doesn't mention any of the projects the company had in the pipeline, but we know that the company was working on a Wii title, rumored to be a new entry in the Rogue Squadron series, or a revival of the SNES classic Pilotwings. Factor 5's last big game was Lair, which was received harshly by critics due to imprecise motion controls. The company has been known for pushing hardware, so fans hoped the next game would showcase their skills. Unfortunately, due to the bad economy, they may never get the chance. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171691

Hate to hear about this stuff and it seems as if it's happening every other week. Hope for the best.
 

~Kinggi~

Banned
Damn, all this bad news about the industry.

I've been working on my stuff to break into the industry but it seems at this point with so many other, more proven people looking for work i dont stand a chance.


That's harsh having to cut peoples health and pay out.
 

industrian

will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
If Factor 5 die like this it'll be quite a sad day for videogaming. Considering what they contributed towards the industry before Lair.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the economy, does it? It's been a year since LAIR (well, longer), we haven't seen their next project or heard anything about it, and I don't remember anyone tripping over themselves to give F5 money.

I feel for the employees and hope they land on their feet.
 
I guess they can't get funding from Microsoft after they talked down their platform to help hype the PS3 and Lair. I always thought Factor-5 and Microsoft would have been a good fit together.
 

Ulairi

Banned
This is really bad analysis from 1up. The last game Factor 5 released wasn't profitable, this has less to do with the economy but from the industry being about "blockbuster to blockbuster".

Factor 5 made a bad bet on going with the PS3. Had they gone multiplatform or stuck with Nintendo, they'd be in a much stronger position.
 

theultimo

Member
Finally the Kid Icarus on Wii rumor will be nixed.


Shoot, can't F5 just help port and fund a Turrican Sequal in the style of Megaman-9?
 
or if they made lair good?

Well actually LAIR's motion controls werent bad like it says in the article. But a lot of the game design was
 
Ulairi said:
Factor 5 made a bad bet on going with the PS3. Had they gone multiplatform or stuck with Nintendo, they'd be in a much stronger position.

It has a lot more to do with Lair being a bad game than it being on the PS3. It would've so poorly no matter the system it was on.
 

Haunted

Member
industrian said:
If Factor 5 die like this it'll be quite a sad day for videogaming. Considering what they contributed towards the industry before Lair.
They made the Battle of Hoth into a videogame staple almost singlehandedly.

Ulairi said:
This is really bad analysis from 1up. The last game Factor 5 released wasn't profitable, this has less to do with the economy but from the industry being about "blockbuster to blockbuster".

Factor 5 made a bad bet on going with the PS3. Had they gone multiplatform or stuck with Nintendo, they'd be in a much stronger position.
.

Although... wasn't the game Sony-funded? In that case, Factor 5 should've gotten their money regardless of the game's sales. Maybe Sony cancelled their rumoured 3-game contract after Lair bombed, and that's part of the problem? Gah, who knows. I hate this shit, companies going under. Good companies, whose games I've played since the late 80's.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Battle of Hoth was first in Shadows of the Empire, which has nothing to do with Factor 4.5! And I think it was coolest there :D
 

Azar

Member
It seems unlikely they could go belly-up if they were working on a new Rogue Squadron or something in partnership with Nintendo. I hope it doesn't happen, regardless. In never played Lair, but I <3 Rogue Squadron and it would be a shame to see a bunch of talented people lose their jobs.
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
I was wondering just the other day about the lack of news from Factor 5. Lair has been released quite some time ago and since then nothing.
I think the main issue with Factor 5 right now is that Lair was pretty much at best average in almost every single departments. Art style was alright I guess, but in terms of game design it felt like the game was 5 years too late. And the ultimate disappointment was that the tech itself, usually Factor 5's best point, was pretty bad. It seemed like they so wanted to create huge environments that they forgot that framerate in a flying game shouldn't ever drop.
The only great thing about Lair is the sound design and music. Top notch stuff.
I wish them to find funding though, I'm sure with a better production team these guys can still create some awesome titles.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Wow, this is horrible news. I hope they pull through.

Clearly the economy has SOMETHING to do with it. One big bomb wouldn't sink a company with F5's pedigree.
 

ymmv

Banned
Ulairi said:
Factor 5 made a bad bet on going with the PS3. Had they gone multiplatform or stuck with Nintendo, they'd be in a much stronger position.

You can turn the argument on its head just as easily: Sony made a bad bet on going with Factor 5's Lair. The game got the bad reviews, not the console it ran on. Sony probably lost just as much on Lair as the developers did, maybe more. It's a lot easier for a huge company like Sony to recover from million dollar losses and bad rep than a small developer like Factor 5.

I hope that Factor 5 can make it through.
 

Haunted

Member
Man, it sounds really bad. :(


Y2Kev said:
Battle of Hoth was first in Shadows of the Empire, which has nothing to do with Factor 4.5! And I think it was coolest there :D
<3 Shadow of the Empire. I maintain that the real-time explosion of that space station in the final cutscene was one of the finest of its time.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Now you have me looking on youtube for footage. I liked that game but a lot of people say it was bad?
 

birdman

Member
Haunted said:
<3 Shadow of the Empire. I maintain that the real-time explosion of that space station in the final cutscene was one of the finest of its time.

Damn that game was good.
 

MoogPaul

Member
Well, they should be getting funding by nintendo, no?
Any truth to that rumor that sony shoved motion controls down Factor 5's throats?
 

Ulairi

Banned
Haunted said:
They made the Battle of Hoth into a videogame staple almost singlehandedly.


.

Although... wasn't the game Sony-funded? In that case, Factor 5 should've gotten their money regardless of the game's sales. Maybe Sony cancelled their rumoured 3-game contract after Lair bombed, and that's part of the problem? Gah, who knows. I hate this shit, companies going under. Good companies, whose games I've played since the late 80's.

It's based on a project to project basis. The game didn't perform well at retail, therefore no sequel and Factor 5 doesn't have the brand name like they had last two generations with N64/GC.

If Lair did well, no one would have lost their job.
 

WinFonda

Member
Ulairi said:
Factor 5 made a bad bet on going with the PS3. Had they gone multiplatform or stuck with Nintendo, they'd be in a much stronger position.

This is what we call economic Darwinism bitchesss!
 

Darklord

Banned
Just please release another Rogue Squadron.

No on-foot missions
Full online and local Co-op
Rebel/Republic and Imperial/CIS campaigns
Both prequels and sequels.

Do it god damn it! Also make it multi-plat! No more fucking shitty dragon games on the last place console.
 

Haunted

Member
It's based on a project to project basis. The game didn't perform well at retail, therefore no sequel and Factor 5 doesn't have the brand name like they had last two generations with N64/GC.

If Lair did well, no one would have lost their job.
Hence the first reply in this thread. :/

Y2Kev said:
Now you have me looking on youtube for footage. I liked that game but a lot of people say it was bad?
Good for a launch game, definitely doesn't hold up anymore. I fear any Youtube footage, I last saw that cutscene 12 years ago. :lol
 

Enk

makes good threads.
theultimo said:
Finally the Kid Icarus on Wii rumor will be nixed.


Shoot, can't F5 just help port and fund a Turrican Sequal in the style of Megaman-9?

They really should try to port over the T2002 engine along with level editor. That game looks pretty good on a wide screen HDTV. Plus the Turrican series never really caught on in the USA. Now will be a good time to reintroduce the IP.
 

Ysiadmihi

Banned
Can't say I'll be too sad to see them go after Rebel Strike and Lair. They really stopped caring about the gameplay since RS2.
 
MoogPaul said:
Any truth to that rumor that sony shoved motion controls down Factor 5's throats?

Nope, it wouldn't make sense considering they don't do that with any other developers. Their own in house developed flying game, Warhawk, had 2 control schemes (analog and SixAxis). F5 dropped the analog controls for Lair on their own.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I saw some. I didn't know there was a PC version though. It's just a lot of red lights flashing :lol
 

MadOdorMachine

No additional functions
Factor 5 should be beating down Nintendo's door to make a StarFox game. They are probably the best suited to bring the series back. They've always been a great contender to be a 2nd party studio. Maybe now is a good time for them to reconsider that option.
 

MoogPaul

Member
Kinda off topic a little but I hope to everything that the wii game is not a rogue squad but a starfox title. i'd love to see a factor 5 starfox.

edit: wow i'm stupid I can't type for shit today
 

stonedwal

Member
Weren't they doing Superman for Brash?

I say get in bed with LucasArts for a quickfire Rogue Squadron Trilogy for the Wii. They could probably redo the original game in a couple of months (Rogue Leader took them about 9 months?), and Rogue Leader and Rebel Strike still look leagues better than 99% of the Wii catalogue.

Turrican for VC and a remake for XBLA/PSN/PC could also be a small but lucrative project if handled correctly.
 
Factor 5 should license out their engine to other Wii 3rd party developers who can't figure out how to make Gamecube games. Which is pretty much every single developer out there.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
ymmv said:
You can turn the argument on its head just as easily: Sony made a bad bet on going with Factor 5's Lair.

:lol

I'm pretty sure Sony's 1st year wasn't ruined or even significantly hurt by going with LAIR, never heard that argument before. Factor 5 on the other hand, was undoubtedly hurt by LAIR, though I'd put the blame on them directly not them choosing the PS3. If anything, going with the PS3 gave them a lot more hype than they would have gotten if they had remained with Nintendo imo.
 

Stop It

Perfectly able to grasp the inherent value of the fishing game.
While I am saddened the potential of quite an important dev going down the pan, I think that Factor 5, well, Eggebrecht may have reaped what he has sown here.

I think that, especially since LAIR, F5 have burned any bridges they had in the industry, they abandoned Nintendo for Sony to make LAIR for PS3, during the dev period Eggebrecht talked down the 360, probably destroying any MS relationship and the furore over LAIR probably ended any relation with SCEA.

That leaves 3rd parties, which probably also got scared off by Eggebrechts' antics, also, if Nintendo were funding Factor 5 for any Wii titles I don't think they would be in such financial difficulty, which probably kills off any rumours that F5 would make a triumphant return to Nintendo.

Sad, but not unexpected, this last year has seen Factor 5 go nuts over the LAIR launch, then went silent, I think that shown that we might not see another game from them again I'm afraid.
EmCeeGramr said:
Didn't know that, wow.
stonedwal said:
Weren't they doing Superman for Brash?
Was that ever confirmed? I can't remember now, no matter, Brash appears to be dead anyway according to their wiki page
 

Haunted

Member
Good ol Lucasarts SNES trilogy.

Y2Kev said:
I saw some. I didn't know there was a PC version though. It's just a lot of red lights flashing :lol
I totally forgot a PC version even existed. >_< Those pixels are huge. I was talking about the N64 version, naturally.
 

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
Ulairi said:
Factor 5 made a bad bet on going with the PS3. Had they gone multiplatform or stuck with Nintendo, they'd be in a much stronger position.

Or make you know, not such a horribly received game that was smashed by critics.... but hey blame PS3 its all good $599 etc etc
 
Minsc said:
If anything, going with the PS3 gave them a lot more hype than they would have gotten if they had remained with Nintendo imo.

I don't think so. I understand what you mean, but think about it; look at all the 3rd party trash on the Wii that doesn't even look as good as Gamecube games. Imagine what would happened if Factor 5 had developed something that almost look as good as the HD games without the HD. That I think would give them more hype than another PS3 game. I mean, it's not like the game really offered anything beyond what the PS3 had out at the time.
 

Ulairi

Banned
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Or make you know, not such a horribly received game that was smashed by critics.... but hey blame PS3 its all good $599 etc etc

System PS3 has X number of units in consumers hands, it becomes a whole lot harder to sell software when there aren't that many people out there who can, you know, actually buy it.
 
Ulairi said:
System PS3 has X number of units in consumers hands, it becomes a whole lot harder to sell software when there aren't that many people out there who can, you know, actually buy it.

Insomniac only developers for the PS3. I don't hear any reports of them having trouble paying their employees or possibly going under.
 
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